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Stack it up on some bricks just now, decouple from wall and see what effect that has before you do anything more radical.

Having completed the initial groundworks last year (see Part 15) it was great to get the digger back and be able to spread the remaining sub and top soil over our site. All in all, there has been around 150 hours of digger time to get all of the site landscaped. Other than using stone excavated on site to edge parts of the driveway and round the back of the house, most of the digger time (supplemented for earth moving with a dumper) has been spent on earthworks. At the front of the house, we had formed our terraces last year so 'only' had to cover with top soil. At the rear of the house, a lot more work was required as we had to spread what was still a sizeable amount of subsoil, before we could finish with topsoil. The result of all that work was a barren 'moonscape' of soil. Having considered all of my gardening options, and in particular the exposed nature of our site, I opted to go for a very simple garden scheme - a mix of lawned grass and wildflower meadow. With 2/3 of an acre to seed, I opted for the big guns and got a local farmer in to power harrow and air seed the meadow areas. He also harrowed and raked the lawned areas for me, but they did require good old human input to get an acceptable and stone light (I won't say free) bed on which I could sow lawn seed. I sourced both lawn and meadow seed from a local merchant, opting for a local species rich meadow mix, boosted with some annual and bird/bee wildflower seeds. On those areas which the air seeder couldn't reach, I used an aero broadcast seed sower / "fiddle" sower. For those who haven't used one, it's a very simple yet effective bit of kit. The lawn seed was sown at a rate of around 45g / sq m, and the meadow grass at 3g /sq m (to allow space for the wildflowers to grow) 6 weeks on, the grass has established itself and our site is starting to look rooted in its surroundings. Looking forward to next year to see some colour in the meadow areas. Stone lined entrance - large stone will eventually have a house name sign on it. Driveway, lined with timer (old 75mm posts) and small stones at the corner Meadow area - depending how this looks, the lawn area may be extended back a little to shape the meadow with flowing curved lines. You can see our treatment plant at the bottom right of this photo. A diversion channel filled with stone and small stones around the plant lid are in place to prevent water running onto the lid and flooding the pump chamber. The slope between the two terraces has been sown with wildflower meadow grass, so the terraces are hidden when looking from the road below. if this doesn't work / look quite right, I have the option of converting to lawn grass. How we have finished the space between the two sections of the house. It will of course take time for the grass to get properly established, and no doubt there will be many changes made, but overall things are looking good and the house feels that it should be there / always has been there. Meantime, we are just waiting for the fencer to come and erect two new boundary fences and replace an existing one to enclose the site from the adjacent field and neighbouring site.

I would want a more positive diagnosis of what this fault means. In the case I mentioned, it was because the ground loop was not circulating, so the heat pump was trying to extract heat from a neat exchanger with no flow through it, and that causes something to overheat and over pressurise. Ir it is a blockage and hence low flow in the secondary I would expect if you monitored the flow and return temperature, you would find the flow temperature way too hot if crud was impeding flow. Does this happen? All basic checks you would expect them to do before just diagnose by "try it and see" (at the customers expense)

Where's the contamination coming from that warrants the filter ? What metal components are there in the wet circuit ? I think these two are handing you your ass on a plate TBH, not just on the rates but with a guesstimate of what's ACTUALLY wrong. Even with a low dilution of inhibitor 5 years is crazy for someone to suggest it's contaminated imo. And £1000+ every 5 years? You'd have been better off on LPG The rates aren't crazy for what they are but 2 guys to fit a bloody filter ? Close the isolations and chop the pipe, in with the filter, purge and away to go. Hour for one guy max. You can dose it yourself with a hozelock bottle. Are you up for tackling any of this yourself ? We can advise through pics etc.

Not me, I must be the only satisfied customer in the world.

Are secondhand granite worktops useful for those shelves rather than marble? Probably a touch cheaper.

Thanks for the offer, Nick, but SWMBO has decreed that a Henry looks "too industrial"................. I took the car in for a service today, and whilst kicking my heels around town popped in to the new appliance "super store" that's just opened. By luck they had a range of (not particularly cheap) vacuum cleaners that you could have a go with, and one was the Vax C88-AM-PE (different name in the shop, but same part number on the unit, so same spec) that @dpmiller suggested. I was impressed, it's relatively small and light, has loads of suction, and looks a bit less industrial than a Henry. So, I came home, did a bit of surfing around, and bought a new one for £60, with the 6 year manufacturers guarantee and it comes with the rotating brush head (not fussed about that, but it might be useful for cleaning the car). Pity the price in the store in town was massively greater than the online price.................. It should be here by Thursday, so if I get a chance before we shoot off to our favourite holiday hotel for a few days R&R (this one: http://www.burghisland.com/ - the cocktails would probably appeal to @Ferdinand...................) I'll try and post a review in this thread as to how it compares with other machines we've had, ranging from the crappy Dyson to the superb old Vax 121 (I reckon the suction of the Vax C88-AM-PE is on a par with the ancient Vax 121, from my quick test).

I can't really comment on the UFH issues but I've just had a normal central heating system power flushed - 2 plumbers for 1 full working day cost £300 + Vat.